The Slow, Limping Progress of a Relationship
by Queen of the Castle
Summary: Jack/Nine. For once, Jack finds himself unable to get himself out of a scrape. It's a good thing the Doctor has had so much practice rescuing people.


Warning: Relatively non-explicit references to torture.

* * *

"You stupid fool," the Doctor says as a greeting.

"Nice to see you too, Doc," Jack replies. He groans slightly as he attempts to straighten himself up. He's not even quite sure why he makes the effort. It's not as if the Doctor can't tell just by glancing at him that Jack's seriously injured.

"Rose isn't with you," Jack remarks.

"You think I'd voluntarily bring her here?" the Doctor asks incredulously.

Jack supposes not. He's pretty sure that there's not a thing in the whole universe that's more important to the Doctor than Rose Tyler. He wouldn't want her to even _see_ this place, let alone take the chance that she'd be captured and tortured as well.

Jack's been through this sort of thing before. He'll heal. But while this sort of thing wouldn't break Rose completely either – she's too strong for that – it just might break the last of her innocence. Jack doesn't want that for her anymore than the Doctor does.

"They told me what they did to you," the Doctor says. "In _detail_, by the way, right down to a graphic description of the sound your tibia made when it cracked. Why'd you let them do that, then? You could've just told them what they wanted to know."  
"Oh, well, it's been a while since I was tortured," Jack says flippantly. "I was beginning to miss it. Old habits. You know how it is."

"Shut up," the Doctor orders. His tone leaves no room for arguments, or for further joking. His closed-off expression reminds Jack of the way the Doctor laid the blame at Jack's feet for the unexpected fallout of Jack's con when the two of them first met. He's deadly serious.

The way the Doctor's arm slides around Jack's waist to support him as Jack limps to his feet belies the harshness, though. The Doctor's actually worried about him. Jack finds that he's a little surprised about that.

Most of the time the Doctor acts like he wants nothing more than for Jack to hurry up and get the hell off of his ship, already. It's not as if he ever extended an invitation for Jack to stay on indefinitely. Not really. He saved Jack's life, but beyond that... well. Jack doesn't intend to leave the TARDIS until the Doctor explicitly makes him. But even with Rose there to champion Jack's cause, Jack's always been sure that it won't take very long for the Doctor to get sick enough of him to kick him out.

Yet here he is, going out of his way to get Jack back, and showing emotions that Jack honestly had no idea that the Doctor felt about him. Jack has always been aware that there's a lot more to the Doctor than meets the eye, but he's still stunned at how well the Doctor has hidden all of this away.

Halfway back to the TARDIS, Jack decides he can't take the heavy silence any longer. He's never been good at just letting quiet sit uninterrupted. Not when there are so many words and sounds and actions in the universe that could be filling it.

"They wanted my TARDIS key," Jack admits. "So that they could break into the TARDIS and steal her to change this planet's history, they said. Thing is, I'd swallowed the key when I was first captured, just in case. Didn't really fancy them cutting into me and rooting around my insides looking for it, so I had to play coy about it instead. They didn't like that much. Hence the torture."

Jack doesn't say that his real reason for not giving away the location of the key has very little to do with the fact that his captors would have gutted and killed him to get it. Rather, it has everything to do with protecting the man who's holding onto him now and a blonde woman with an open smile that Jack's sure could melt even the most hardened man.

Jack doubts he needs to say any of that, really. He thinks that the Doctor probably already knows. That's likely why he's so annoyed at Jack now. The Doctor can't seem to understand why other people would risk their lives for him.

Personally, Jack can't understand why there's a single person out there in the universe who _wouldn't_.

The Doctor stops in his tracks suddenly. Considering that he's leaning at least half of his weight on the Doctor, Jack halts along with him.

The Doctor turns in towards Jack without letting go of him, which has the effect of mimicking an odd one-armed hug.

For a moment, Jack's almost certain that the Doctor intends to kiss him. Any less stubborn man likely would have, in that situation. Cooler-than-human breath mixes with Jack's, and intense eyes seem to look right into him. Jack wonders whether those legends about Time Lords being telepathic are true. Perhaps the Doctor is looking into his mind at this very moment. Even though Jack sort of hates the idea of someone being in his head after what the Time Agency did to his memories, it's _the Doctor_, so it's somehow not so bad. Jack can't help but wonder whether, if the Doctor _is_ reading his mind, he likes what he's seeing.

The Doctor traces a finger gently across Jack's cheekbone. It comes away stained red with blood that's apparently dripping from a reopened wound on Jack's face. Jack shivers slightly from the tenderness of the motion. If he's lucky, the Doctor will have somehow failed to feel his reaction despite the way their bodies are lined up closely against each other.

Jack's never really been lucky.

The strange intimacy of the moment is broken, though, when the Doctor turns to look straight on again. They recommence their slow progress towards the TARDIS, with Jack still valiantly trying to walk while keeping his weight off his broken leg as well as he can manage.

"Don't do that again," the Doctor says, not looking at Jack.

Jack's absolutely certain what the Doctor means by that. Despite all of his flippant answers about why he's just been tortured, the Doctor's too smart to believe that there was any other reason for it than Jack putting himself on the line for him. The Doctor clearly wants him to swear not to do anything like that for him again.

Jack decides immediately that he can't make a promise like that. He just can't. If he had to, he'd do it all again in less than a heartbeat, and he's sworn to himself that he's done with lying about the things that matter.

Instead, he merely grunts and lets the Doctor take that answer how he chooses.

They finish the journey to the TARDIS with Jack prattling on about some other time he'd been held captive. Similarly to most of Jack's stories, it ends with him naked and fleeing from twelve aliens that were so oddly proportioned (to the human eye at least) that even Jack wasn't interested in taking advantage of his clothing malfunction.

They both pretend that Jack's actually feeling as cheerful as his voice suggests, and that everything's all right. It's just another day in the life of Captain Jack Harkness. No big deal.

Jack doesn't miss the way the fingers of the arm the Doctor has wrapped around him for support stroke across Jack's ribcage absently, as if confirming through touch that Jack actually is there, and safe.

It's easier if they just let it slide, for now.

After all, it's better if Jack saves any teasing about how much the Doctor missed him for a time when Jack is actually capable of following through on it properly.

He hopes that time comes soon.

~FIN~


End file.
